The Dogs of War
by Nroque18
Summary: Catbeard has a piece of Marco Pollo's map - to get it, Matt and his crew will have to make their way to Marleybone and receive a commission from the Royal Navy to get him out of prison. There's just one problem though - the Armada is at Marleybone's doorstep, led by Supreme General Rooke! The thirteenth installment of Pirate Legacy.
1. Chapter 1 - That Darn Cat!

Rena swore as she stumbled slightly down the gangplank, but luckily, I was there to catch her before she could fall onto the hard cobblestones of Skull Island Harbor. "Hey, watch it. Nikolai said you still need to be careful."

"Thanks, Matt." Rena mumbled, and I stayed close to her as we walked to Captain Avery's office, where the steward of Skull Island himself stood up from his desk to greet us. "Matthew! Rena! I'm glad you two are back! Did you find Egg Foo Yung's piece of the map?"

I shook my head as I sat down in a comfy armchair in front of Captain Avery's desk. "The Armada beat us to it, and Rooke knocked all of my trusted associates for a loop."

"The Supreme General of the Armada? Oh my..." Captain Avery said in surprise, and I noticed Rena wince slightly from pain as she sat down in her seat. "Any luck with Catbeard?"

Captain Avery shook his head. "I fear my efforts to gain Catbeard's piece of the map have run into a snag. While you were away, I sent several of my hearties to get it, but they didn't find hide or whisker of him."

"Did they look in his hideout? The cave carved to look like a monster?" Rena asked, and Captain Avery thought for a moment. "Cave? Why, I... no. I don't think so."

"How could they miss it? It's only the most conspicuous in the whole of Port Regal Skyway! What, did you hire Fin Dorsal again?" I asked, and the guilty look on Captain Avery's face at my last remark proved it, but then his expression shifted to that of indignation. "Well, since _you're _so familiar with it, I trust you two are the captains for the job."

"We'll have to wait for next morning's wind then. Our crews would mutiny if we left so soon after returning home." I said as I stood up to leave, and Rena followed my lead as we went back home to Nikolai's general store.

**XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX**

"So are you guys going to come with us?" I asked Nikolai, but he shook his head as he wiped down his counter, and Emma did likewise as she toyed with the chocolate Pocky stick in her mouth, making it wave around like a wizard's wan.

"It's about time I rejoin my crew aboard the _Silver Rain_, but I'll see you around, Matt." Emma said as she pushed off the bar, and she surprised me by giving me a peck on the cheek and a mischievous grin that only made her feelings towards me more ambiguous.

As Emma left with a ringing of bells, Nikolai threw the towel over his shoulder. "I've had more than my fair share of excitement during my three years at Ravenwood, and it's about time Lector, my Mander assistant, goes home to Krokotopia. You kids go on ahead."

I neglected to mention that he was three years younger than me, and I held out my hand for him to shake. "Well then, I'll see you around, mate."

**XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX**

"On the count of three! One, two, three!" I shouted, and together, my trusted associates and I leapt aboard the _Catspaw_, Catbeard's pirate ship, and landed with thuds onto the main deck.

"What's this? Looks as if Cap'n Kitty's flown the coop!" Ratbeard said as he looked around the weather decks, and instead his first mate, Mr. Norrington came to greet us. "It's you? Oh, what a relief! Captain Catbeard's in deep trouble and I fear he's none but himself to blame."

"What sort of trouble?" I asked, and Mr. Norrington explained. "We ran out of pickled herring awhile back, and there were no new shipments - not with the war. The Captain... just couldn't help himself. We made for Port Regal to restock... and the Redcoats were waiting! They declared Catbeard an enemy of the crown and transported him to Marleybone!"

"Marleybone? It's been ages since I've been home. Looks like we've got a long trip ahead of us to old Marley, eh, Captain?" Jack asked, and Mr. Norrington piped up. "You want to save Catbeard? You'll need a yellow Windstone. There's one in Fort Basset's vault, in Port Regal. Gilbert and Sullivan can help."

**XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX**

"You need to break into Fort Basset? No small feat, that. Since the war, they've locked her up tight as a drum. Still..." Sullivan the Pug said, and his business partner, Gilbert stepped in with some opera. "Carefully on tiptoe stealing, breathing gently as ye may, every step with caution feeling, ye will softly steal away."

I had no idea where that came from, but a lightbulb seem to go off in Sullivan's head. "What's that? Stealing? Why yes, the very man! You need Mr. Lytton. An expert, shall we say, in locks, second stories, and quiet exits. He's retired now, but if anyone knows a way into Fort Basset, he does. You can find him in his house next to the Hope and Anchor."

**XOXOX OXOXO Third-Person Point of View OXOXO XOXOX**

Lytton, a German Shepherd dressed in a fine green coat and a black bandanna, both stolen from an old gentleman and a young street rat respectively, opened the door to his house to reveal a young lady smiling prettily at him with long golden blonde hair tied in a ponytail with a black ribbon, and sparkling emerald green eyes that matched the color of her woolen dress. "I'm looking for Mr. Lytton."

"Aye, that'd be me. What do ye want, girly?" Lytton asked suspiciously, and the girl answered straightforwardly. "The yellow Windstone in Fort Basset."

Lytton raised an eyebrow at her. "Fort Basset? Aye, I could get ye in there... If I'd a mind to! What'd be in it for me?"

"We'll talk about it. May I come inside?" The girl asked, and Lytton looked around quickly before letting her step foot onto the oaken planks that was the floor of his well-appointed home, decorated either with stolen objects or objects bought with stolen gold.

Lytton roughly gestured for her to sit, and as she sat down in an armchair, she began to speak. "My name is Rena Raden, and if you help me steal the yellow Windstone from Fort Basset, I'll give you all the gold you can carry."

Lytton barked in laughter as he swept his arm around the rich room. "Gold? Ha! What's gold to one who can snatch the fillings from a toff's teeth in the town square in broad daylight? I want for nothing, except..."

"Go on..." Rena said, and Lytton finished. "Respectability. I made me nest egg and have a mind to settle down and marry me best girl. But the local vicar'll have nothing to do with me. If you can get Father McKenzie to overlook me checkered past and marry us legit, I'll get ye into the fort alright. Aye, and for free too."

"We have a deal." Rena said as she stood up and offered him her hand, which he shook, and with a thief's eye for value, Lytton could see that her long fingers were obviously used to being where they shouldn't. "Keep them fingers sticky, girl. Keep 'em sticky."

**XOXOX OXOXO Matthew Exeter's Point of View OXOXO XOXOX**

"Lytton? I haven't time to deal with that reprobate! Can't you see the Church of Saint Fido is haunted?" Father McKenzie asked, and I raised an eyebrow. "Haunted? With ghosts? Evil spirits?"

"I'm not mad, I tell you! There are dark forces at work in St. Fido's - you dare not enter!" Father McKenzie insisted, and Rena, still in her best dress, spoke up. "Well, what about Lytton and his wedding?"

Father McKenzie made a shooing gesture with his hand. "I can't be concerned with the likes of him while Port Regal's only house of worship is plagued with unholy ghosts! But your concern for the man's matrimonial bliss, however, moves me. I will marry him and his good lady. But first, rid my church of those apparitions!"


	2. Chapter 2 - Apse of Judgement

"Don't worry, sir. We'll take care of things." I promised Father McKenzie, and within the hour, Rena had changed out of her dress and our trusted associates were assembled to investigate the church of Saint Fido.

About halfway down the aisle, there was a sudden shrieking noise, and we ducked to avoid a swarm of flying animals that flew to the other side, startled from their roosts by our footsteps.

"Blood Bats! Ugh! The whole church reeks of them. No wonder the vicar thinks this place is haunted." Our sniper, Bonnie Anne said as she stood up, and El Toro laughed. "Ghosts? Ha! This is a simple infestation of Blood Bats. These colonial types are very superstitious, no?"

"Hey, I'm one of those colonial types, y'know!" I protested, but just then blue mist seeped out from the cracks in the church with a loud hiss to form in front of us the ghost of an angry Goat wearing a white barrister's wig and the clothes of a gentleman. "GET! OUT!"

"Of course, my travels have taught me never to dismiss the power of the supernatural." El Toro said, his voice wavering slightly, and Ratbeard snorted as he drew his cutlass. "Pshaw! Just get 'im!"

As Ratbeard made a horizontal swipe, the ghost disappeared before his blade made contact, and Ratbeard quickly recovered despite his surprise. "What the blazes?"

The ghostly Goat gentleman then reappeared at the altar, this time armed with a short sword and flintlock pistol. "I'll not be driven out! Leave this place! By the Powers! I said LEAVE!"

Ratbeard then stepped backwards in surprise. "Neptune's beard! I know that ghost, Cap'n. 'Tis Cap'n Kid, the blackest-hearted villain that ever sailed Skull Island's skyways!"

"I've heard of him." Bonnie said, already putting Captain Kid in her sights. "They say that back in his day, he hunted down every last pirate in Skull Island, an' then turned pirate himself."

"Arr, and they never found all that treasure he stole neither. Let's get him!" Ratbeard said, and as we drew our weapons, the ghosts of Captain Kid's crew rose from the church floor to aid their master, armed with axes, muskets, pikes, pistols, and swords.

"Let's go!" I shouted, and we cheered as we leapt into battle. Drawing my four pistols in succession, I quickly holstered them as I stunned a ghost with each shot. Dropping my hands down to the hilts of my swords, I drew them as a Dog armed with a boarding pike charged towards me.

I parried the point of his sharpened stick off to the side before stabbing him through the heart and dispersing him into blue mist, and I ducked as a Frog armed with two pistols shot twice at me.

The Frog then had a thrown knife cleave through him, and I knew Rena had been there. Bonnie and Emmett's gunshots rang out in the church, and I heard the battle cries of the other close-range fighters on my side somewhere around me.

I spotted Captain Kid about to shoot Rena, and I ran towards him with my swords to try and stop him, but suddenly, he switched targets so that his gun was pointing at me. As a gunshot rang out, louder than the rest for some reason, I threw up a floating wall of blue translucent hexagons that shattered into pieces as Captain Kid's burst of electricity struck it, allowing me to lunge at his head with my short swords.

Captain Kid brought up his sword just in time to block my attack, and as our blades locked together, we struggled against each other in a contest of brute strength. "Reinforce!"

As the screech of an eagle sounded somewhere over my head, I felt a surge of new strength overflow throughout my body, and with a shout, I threw Captain Kid onto the ground and stabbed him through the heart. I suddenly felt tired, and Captain Kid had his hand on my blade to pull it out. "Enough! I'll not fight you anymore, but neither will I go 'till my good name is restored and I have my revenge!"

I helped him to withdraw my sword from his body, and I felt ungraciously on my bum, breathing hard as Captain Kid explained things. "Governor Shrewsbury tricked me! He commissioned me an irregular in the Royal Navy to break the pirates of Port Regal and commandeer their plunder. When I returned victorious, Shrewsbury clapped me in irons and had ME hanged as a thief and pirate."

"For what?" I panted, and Captain Kid answered. "The Heart of the Incal, looted from the Lost Pyramid of Oltec, is hidden inside Shewsbury's crypt. He hanged me for stealing it, but he was the thief! Get it to Governor Stanley and prove my innocence, or I swear I'll haunt St. Fido's for eternity!"


	3. Chapter 3 - Crypt of Consequence

"Ugh... It smells in here!" I exclaimed as we entered the crypt built underneath the church. Everyone else nodded as we walked over to the sarcophagus of Governor Shrewsbury, where his portrait hung above the stone coffin, depicting a Greyhound dressed in the uniform of an Army officer, complete with cocked hat and sword.

"Here 'tis - the tomb of Governor Shrewsbury! A more blackhearted governor there never was." Ratbeard said as his fingers touched the black stone of the sarcophagus, and as we opened it, we found the treasure where the skeleton's heart should be.

The Heart of the Incal was a piece of stone carved in the shape of a heart, and cracks of gold like veins shone through in places by the torchlight. As we admired it, we suddenly heard an unfamiliar voice. "Pirate scum! Throw down your arms!"

We spun around, drawing our weapons to find the ghost of Governor Shrewsbury with his sword drawn,and he was escorted by a small platoon of twenty-six ghostly redcoats with muskets. "Traitors! Pirate vermin! The Heart of the Incal is mine! Mine forever!"

"I don't think so!" Rena answered as she fired a pistol, and as a Redcoat fell onto the cobblestone floor, I belatedly realized she had taken one of mine from behind my waist without me knowing, and she was now switching her grip on the pistol to use it as a makeshift buckler.

"Make ready!" Governor Shrewsbury shouted at his men, but fortunately for us, our Musketeers were quicker. Thirteen gunshots rang out in the space of a few split seconds, and half the redcoats fell stunned onto the floor, but the remaining were too well trained in life to let the second death of their comrades faze them as they fired.

One of the redcoats' bursts of electricity managed to catch me in the right arm, and as it dropped to my side like a dead weight, my pistol dropped onto the floor.

Holstering my left-hand pistol, I drew one of my short swords as I ran towards the firing line of redcoats hurrying to reload, and as I stabbed one through the heart, the two of his sides tried to stab me with their bayonets, but a Valor's Shield stopped their attacks from behind as I engaged Governor Shrewsbury.

Behind me, I could hear the others engaging the redcoats in close quarters combat, and Governor Shrewsbury shouted as his feet were frozen to the floor, thanks to the hoodoo of our resident witchdoctor, Old Scratch. Gritting his teeth, Governor Shrewsbury growled as he thrust towards me in an attack which I parried.

I then saw a movement in the shadows behind Governor Shrewsbury, and a familiar hand clamped itself over his mouth as the point of a dagger peeked out through his ghostly garments. As he disappeared into blue mist, I saw Rena grinning, dagger in hand.

I turned around to see Monkey King and his doppelgängers attack a redcoat in four different directions, and El Toro stabbed a redcoat through the heart as Ratbeard cleaved through another with his cutlass. Old Scratch was magically hurling bones at Jack's opponent, covering Bonnie and Emmett as they reloaded.

Soon, only one redcoat was left, and as he backed away from us slowly encircling him, a gunshot rang out, and he fell to reveal Captain Kid with smoke coming out of his ghostly gun. He calmly walked towards me, and I brought out the fist-sized Heart of the Incal for him to see and feel with his own hands. "Thank you, pirates! Get this to Governor Stanley and my soul can finally be at peace."

"We will, mate." I promised, and Captain Kid nodded as he faded away into nonexistence, finally at peace.

**XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX**

"The ghost of Captain Kid, you say? And innocent? It's hardly to be believed. But the Heart of the Incal certainly proves it." Father McKenzie said as he took the Heart from me. "I shall get this to Governor Stanley. You go tell Mr. Lytton he is to be married in St. Fido's at his convenience. Peace be unto you, Captain. You've done a great deed today. For Kid AND Lytton."


	4. Chapter 4 - Fort Score

"Ye've done it, then? Bless my soul, I'm to be married!" Lytton cheered as he and Rena sat inside his home. "I appreciate this, Rena. Never thought I'd have a church wedding. Here - ye've earned this key."

As Rena took the rusty key and pocketed it, Lytton explained its purpose as he handed her a map of the fort. "It opens a grate in the sewers that'll get ye into the cellar of Fort Basset. The redcoats never go down there - ye shouldn't have any trouble. They'll have the Windstone in the commander's safe inside his office. I can't help ye there, though."

Rena nodded as she brought out a piece of her old jewelry that was still nice. "I understand. Thank you, Lytton, and here: an early wedding present for your bride."

Lytton nodded as he took the simple brooch and shook Rena's hand. "Hey, us thieves have got to stick together."

**XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX**

Prying open the manhole with her dagger, Rena slipped through the crack and onto the ladder, pulling the circle of metal over her head. As her feet touched the sewer floor, she brought out her flashlight: just a simple hollow cylinder with a few light crystals shining out one end, and she swept its gaze around the area, searching for the grate to Fort Basset.

A few minutes of stumbling about later, she found what she was looking for, and it was marked with a crude drawing of a basset hound. The grate lifted open on its rusty hinges, and putting the cover on her flashlight, Rena crawled inside and up to the basement of Fort Basset.

As she put one toe out from behind a box, Rena was nearly caught by a roving flashlight mounted on the musket of a patrolling redcoat, and she swore silently in her head as she pressed her body against a stack of crates. _Uh oh. Looks like this cellar's a lot less deserted than Lytton said it was! I'd better find the commander's office before more redcoats come._

Stealthily making her way across the cellar, she avoided the lights of the redcoats and snuck up to the ground floor, where a lone officer was walking the halls. Rena kept out of his line of sight as she double-checked the map, and when she was finished, she sprinted silently to the office door.

Bringing out her pick and tension wrench, Rena estimated she had about a few minutes before the officer came back to her position for another round, and she tried to strike a balance between stealth and speed as she tried to open the lock.

As she worked her pick inside the lock, Rena instinctively felt the lock's "sweet spot" give way beneath her pick, and with one quick movement from her tension wrench, the door was open and she slipped inside the room.

Locking the door behind her, Rena hurried over to a painting of who she assumed to be the fort's current commanding officer, and on a hunch, she peeked beneath it and grinned as she saw the metal door of the safe.

"Thirteen... forty-nine... seven... and there it is!" Rena whispered to herself as she twisted the knob on the safe, and as she put the yellow crystal into her jacket pocket, she suddenly heard the door open, and she swore at herself for not hearing the door being unlocked in her excitement. "What the deuce? How did you get in here? Guards!"

Rena spun around, throwing her striker as she did so, and the fort commander went down without a fight. Hastily picking up the weighted cylinder lying on the floor next to his head, Rena hurried to make her escape from the fort's basement.

A duo of redcoats aimed their muskets at her, but she leapt off to the side just in time to avoid their fire, and she continued running towards the basement, the guards hot in pursuit.

Slamming the door behind her, she ran down the stairs to the waiting grate, moving quickly past the redcoats stationed in the cellar, who hadn't yet received word of the alarm.

Smirking to herself, Rena shut the grate above her, and it would be an hour before the redcoats finally gave up their search for her.

**XOXOX OXOXO Matthew Exeter's Point of View OXOXO XOXOX**

While Rena went to retrieve the Windstone by herself, the rest of us were waiting in Gilbert and Sullivan's store, the Savoy Mercantile. As we listened to one of Gilbert's operas, we heard the bell ring as Rena opened the door, and Sullivan asked, "You've already gained the Windstone, haven't you?"

Rena nodded as she brought out the crystal, and I exclaimed to her, "Brilliantly done, Rena! I knew you could do it, girl!"

"Then give three cheers, and one cheer more, for the hardy captain of-" Gilbert began, but Sullivan cut him off. "Oh, do hush! Now, you'll need travel papers to get into Marleybone. I'm afraid we haven't any, and forgeries are out of the question."

"Perhaps Downley in MooShu might be of service." Emmett offered, referring to Marleybone's official ambassador to the Emperor, who had promoted Emmett to the rank of commander.

"Capital idea!" Sullivan exclaimed. "When you get to Marleybone, look up Ned Land at the Admiral Benbow tavern on the Isle of Dogs. He's an old shipmate of Catbeard's."

"With a yo heave ho, for the wind is free. Her anchor's a-trip and her helm's a-lee. Hurrah for the homeward bound!" Gilbert added, and I nodded as I raised my glass of Yum. "Hurrah for the homeward bound!"


	5. Chapter 5 - Yak in Business

"Transport papers for the Stormgate? Out of the question." Ambassador Downley answered almost immediately after we had asked for them inside of the Marleybonian embassy in Hamamitsu, and Emmett and I began to stand up from our seats. "What, why?"

"Since hostilities began with Valencia, our gracious hosts have been obsessed with keeping Hamamitsu neutral. They've cut shipping to a trickle." Ambassador Downley answered calmly as she gestured for us to retake our seats. "I'm afraid I simply can't spare a pass. Unless..."

"Unless what?" I asked, this time more calmly, and Ambassador Downley answered. "It's no secret the war isn't going well. But yesterday, the governor suspended all trade contacts with Marleybone. The tea trade is severed. I don't know if we've offended our hosts without knowing it, or if MooShu is preparing for Marleybone's defeat. Either way, this is a disaster!"

"You're telling me." I said, rubbing my chin in thought. The tea trade with MooShu was both lucrative and a good way to train sailors for Marleybone. If it was severed, Marleybone would lose a lot of the Royal Navy's funds, as well have fewer able seamen in future supply for the war, both crippling Marleybone's ability to defend itself. Ambassador Downley then broke me out of my train of thought.

"Let's speak plainly. I know you're far more than a mere captain. You've had experience with the more... shadowy elements of MooShu society." Ambassador Downley said as she leaned across the table. "You can help me. Talk to your Yakooza friends. If they can provide me with tea to ship home, you'll have your papers, captain."

"Very well then. We'll be about it." I answered as I stood up to shake the ambassador's hand, and Emmett and I turned to leave for the _Aquila _and _Santo Oro_, and for Rokugara Island in Khotan Skyway.

**XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX**

"Tea? I'd like to help, but it's a tricky business. There are many in the Yakooza with no love for Marleybone. My banner chief, Sato, is such a one." Egg Foo Yung said inside the Yakooza's cave, with a big, beefy (no pun intended) Yak by the name of Shingen at his side. "Sato despises outlanders. Were I to make a deal with the Dogs, he would doubtless try to wrest leadership of the Yakooza from me. Unacceptable."

Egg Foo Yung then thought for a moment, rubbing the underside of his Goose bill with his hand in thought. "Hmm... If an Outlander walked into Sato's stronghold in Sujimura and defeated him, Sato would lose so much face that he could never threaten me again. If this were to happen, your Dog friends would get all the tea they could desire - for the right price, of course. Do we have an understanding?"

"We do." I answered as we grasped each other's forearms, and Egg Foo Yung nodded as I turned to leave.

**XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX**

Dressed in the MooShu-styled clothing given to us the last time we were in Khotan, my trusted associates and I strode into the tea room of the Scarlet Orchid in Hamamitsu, a known hangout for Sato's faction.

A gray-haired Yak wearing purple turned to look at us, and he bowed deeply in respect. "Noble persons, though we are honored by your presence, this club is of a private nature, and we are embarrassed to have to ask yourselves to leave."

"What the blazes is he talking about?" Ratbeard hissed to the rest of us, and Monkey King answered. "He's giving us the MooShu bum's rush. Let me translate: we leave or die."

"Well, in that case, we must obviously... fight! Arriba!" El Toro cried as he drew his sword, and everyone else drew their weapons. Armed with clubs, the Yakooza charged at us with their sword-wielding Pig associates.

"Make ready! Fire!" I ordered, and as fourteen gunshots rang out, fourteen partygoers fell stunned onto the floor. As Bonnie and Emmett reloaded, everyone else charge.

Rena made pragmatic use of a jug of rice wine, and she hurled across the room to hit a Yakooza lieutenant in the head as Temeraire bit into the shoulder from the back of another.

Using his free hand, Jack hurled the steaming hot contents of a nearby teapot into a Pig's face, and the unfortunate swine was then frozen mid-scream by Old Scratch's hoodoo.

As I ducked to avoid the club of a Yak, I saw Ratbeard's peg leg swing up in between my opponent's legs, and the Yak screamed like a little girl as he fell to the floor, clutching his crotch.

El Toro made his whip crack and a Pig howl in pain as Monkey King double-teamed another with one of his doppelgängers, and as his opponent fell, Monkey King shouted to the rest of us. "Sato should be in the penthouse on the top of the pagoda! Up the stairs!"

Ten gunshots rang out, and the remaining partygoer enemies fell stunned onto the floor, amidst the remains of all the broken china, and we regrouped at the bottom of the stairs as Bonnie spoke. "Alrighty then. Let's get this done and get back to Egg."

Keeping our weapons handy, we began running up the stairs and through the floors as Monkey King narrated what was on each floor like a salesman. "First floor! Sportswear! Stationery! Rubber mallets!"

"Funny, the tower didn't look this tall from the outside..." Bonnie said, panting as we ran, and I had to agree with her as Monkey King called out. "Third floor! Molten lead! Chopping blocks! Hot, boiling oil! Top floor! Frying pans, razor blades, ladies' garments... and wannabe Yakooza oyabuns! Everybody out!"

A Yak I assumed to be Sato then stepped out of the darkness on the other side of the large room, wearing a scaly-looking steel breastplate and armed with two katanas and a killer pair of sunglasses. I'd have to loot those after we beat him; it'd be a crime if I didn't. "What is the meaning of this? Ah, it is Yung's little pirate lackeys. How like him to rely on foreign interlopers!"

"You have traveled so far from your homelands only to meet death here. Here I am, pirates! Come and get me if you can." Sato taunted, and I got the feeling he was going to say more, but fourteen gunshots cut him off as his own lackeys charged past their fallen boss.

Ducking past two katanas swung by a Yak, I snatched Sato's sunglasses off of his face and put them on to prepare to kick some butt like a true badass. Drawing my two short swords, I covered them in blue blunting energy to engage an enemy in the form of a Yakooza scribe wielding dark magic.

Two black fireballs stuck a shield of blue translucent hexagons that shattered into pieces to allow me to attack and knock my opponent out, and a Pig axeman then engaged me with a crushing downward blow that would've turned my head into a V of bloody flesh had it struck, but it didn't.

Such a strike threw the Pig off balance and allowed me to slam my swords hard into his head, knocking him out as the others defeated their opponents, one by one, either by blade or gunshot.

As we gathered around the defeated body of Sato, Rena nodded towards me. "Nice shades there, Matt."

"Thanks, you like 'em?" I asked, lifting them up and out of my eyes. Then I grew more serious. "Defeating xenophobes like Sato will be good for all of MooShu, not just Egg Foo Yung and the Yakooza."

"Yeah, I feel like we did a good turn for the old place." Monkey King agreed. "Now let's get back to Egg Foo Yung and get us some tea!"

**XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX**

"Ah, you are just as efficient as I remember. Thank you, my pirate friends, this will consolidate my power nicely." Egg Foo Yung said back at the Yakooza cave on Rokugara Island, and then he nodded towards his right hand Yak, Shingen, who handed me a package. "Now, here is some excellent Moolong tea to bring your friends. Tell them I will arrange it that the embargo will no longer trouble them."

**XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX**

**"**I see your reputation is not exaggerated at all, Captain Exeter, Captain Raden." Ambassador Downley said as she shook my hand, the package of tea on her desk. "Thank you. Those tea merchants were driving me absolutely barking! And here are your papers. Good luck and pleasant journey. Oh - I trust you'll keep your head down? You are headed into a war zone after all."

_War zone? _I thought, but I managed to suppress it with a smile as I shook the ambassador's hand again. "We will, ma'am, and thank you. Happy to be of service to Her Majesty."


	6. Chapter 6 - Marleybone

As the _Aquila _and the _Santo Oro _emerged from the Stormgate and into Westminster Skyway, what I saw made me shed a single, sparkling tear. Shipwrecks were littered all over the skies, and most of them were flying Union Jacks. The _Aquila _passed an abandoned third-rate with seventy-four guns that was slowly sinking, and judging by the holes in the ship's broadside, I doubted much of the crew had survived.

All of us just stood there in silence as we passed the once great third-rate by on our larboard side, and Jack was the first to speak. "Ambassador Downley wasn't kidding - this is a war zone! The Armada must have the Royal Navy on the ropes."

"Catbeard thought Marleybone'd make short work of the Clockworks, did he? Looks t'me like Captain Kitty has much to answer for. He started this war!" Ratbeard said angrily as he cracked his knuckles, and the words came out bitterly as I said them. "He had help."

As everyone turned to look at me, everything just came crashing down, both literally and figuratively. I collapsed to my knees onto the quarterdeck, and spots of moistures began to appear on the planks as I hung my head. "I-I never thought I'd..."

I buried my face in my hands, and I had no idea who patted me on the back as the tears came slipping through my fingers and onto the deck. I knew that I was setting a bad example for my crew, but they weren't doing any better on the main deck, with most of them wiping their tears on their sleeves. "Oh, God... I wish I didn't do it..."

**XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX**

I was silent at the wheel the entire time the _Aquila _was dropping anchor in the harbor, and Ratbeard spoke as he was the first to step off the gangplank. "Right, off to find Ned Land. What was the tavern's name again? The Admiral's Elbow?"

"The Admiral Benbow. I know the place." Bonnie corrected as she began to walk on, but Jack held up a hand to stop her before she got too far. "Let's go there tomorrow. The captain's... not feeling too well."

The others got the message, and they nodded as Jack spoke again. "I know a place where we can stay for the night. Follow me."

I sullenly followed Jack through Marleybone's cobblestone streets, and our brisk walk ended at one of the houses, where Jack knocked on the door to reveal a big, burly crab. "Alright, what do you want, you - Lucky Jack Russell, you old dog! Come here!"

"How've you been, Birgus?" Jack asked as they grasped each other's forearms, and he turned to introduce us. "Birgus Latro, this is Matt Exeter and his trusted associates, and guys, this is Birgus Latro, the old master-at-arms aboard the _Jackdaw, _Edward Exeter's ship."

"You Edward's kid?" Birgus asked, and as I slowly nodded, I was wrapped up in a big bear - or rather, crab hug. "Hah! You look just like your ma, kid! Come in, come in, and welcome to your old dad's house!"

I stepped inside my father's old house, and it was freakishly clean for a bachelor's home, likely because its caretaker was a former sailor. Us skymen have a surprising penchant for cleanliness, which tends to shock our passengers aboard the _Providence._

The house was well appointed, with a nice fireplace crackling merrily in the hearth, comfortable armchairs, good-looking wood paneling and cabinets, as well as tasteful pornographic paintings on the walls.

Above the mantlepiece was a portrait depicting my father and another man I didn't know. I recognized my father's old cocky smile, as well as his slightly long blonde hair and brown eyes. He wore a dark blue coat open over a white waistcoat and trousers, and a cocked hat was tucked underneath one shoulder as he had his other one on the shoulders of the other man.

The other man was tall and slightly tanned, with strange red hair and a scar below his left eye, and he wore a crimson bandanna and a matching coat with black trousers and the bronze handle of a cutlass at his side. "Who's this, Birgus?"

"That'd be Crimson Thomas Hawkins, one of your dad's old pirating friends. I think his son's about your age, and a pirate too, at that." Birgus answered as he looked up from polishing a metal handle on one of the cabinets, and Rena set down a tea tray and handed a cup to me. "Here you go. I figured you could use this."

"Thanks, Rena." I answered as I took the cup from her and sipped from it. It was milk tea with three teaspoons of sugar, just the way I liked it, and as I drained my cup, I set it down on the coffee table and hung my head again, my face in my hands. I then felt Rena press close to me in a hug, and even the gratitude I felt for her couldn't dull the pain.

**A/N: On that cheery note, here is a fun fact: _Birgus Latro _is also the scientific name for the coconut crab.**


	7. Chapter 7 - A Frog in the Fox House

"Catbeard? Aye, he's in the nick, all right. Put 'im in the Glass House, the royal prison, at the other end o' the island." Ned Land said as we sat at the bar in the Admiral Benbow tavern the next morning. It was too early to be three sheets to the wind, so we contented ourselves with glasses of Ryan the Relentless's Yum-n-ade.

"So how do we get him out?" I asked quietly, and Ned Land barked in laughter, slamming his palm onto the bar. If the innkeeper minded, he didn't say as he continued to wipe his glasses. "Good luck! With the war on, the navy won't even let anyone visit 'im but his barrister."

"So what's the name of Catbeard's lawyer, then?" I asked, and Ned Land thought for a moment. "What's 'is name... Swidget! A fine Frog, he is. His office is near the Admiralty Arch."

"Thanks, mate. Drinks are on me." I said, standing up from my seat as I put some coins onto the counter to pay for the Yum-n-ade. Leaving the Admiral Benbow tavern, I began walking to visit the officer of Mr. Swidget.

**XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX**

The inside of the office of Mr. Swidget, esquire, looked more like a library than a law office, and when I approached its owner at his desk, I half-expected the Frog to say, "Do you have a library card?"

Mr. Swidget wore a powdered wig along with his gentlemanly clothes, a leather-bound book in front of him and a satchel on his desk. "Good evening. It's rather late, but I think I can make room for a new appointment. Have you need of legal representation?"

"No thank you, I've no need of a barrister." I said, shaking my head as I put out a hand to stop him, and Mr. Swidget looked at me in confusion. "Barrister? Ah. Actually, I'm a solicitor."

"Catbeard's already drawing up his will? That's bad news. " I remarked, and Mr. Swidget nodded. "Yes, he is one of my clients. What business do you have with him?"

"I want to talk to him about something." I said, and Mr. Swidget shook his head. "Impossible! My client is the prize prisoner of the Royal Navy! Do you have any idea how reluctant they'll be to put him in the same room with another pirate?"

Mr. Swidget groaned, and then he slammed his fingers onto his desk in frustration. "Oh, dash it all! It may cost me all my favors to do it, but I'm at my wit's end. It's Nigel, my nephew, you see. Fallen in with a bad lot, he has. Could you set him a good example? Show a firm hand to those bullies he's aligned with, and I know he'd come back to the straight and narrow."

I gestured for Mr. Swidget to continue, and he did so. "The gang congregates around a disreputable warehouse in Dorset Street. Teach them a lesson, and I'll get you in touch with Mr. Beard."

**XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX**

The gang had no idea what had them as we crashed through the windows of the disreputable warehouse, and we held each other at gunpoint as their leader, a Fox wearing a domino mask and armed with a blunderbuss asked us a question."Who the devil are you people? Do you know whose place you just broke into?"

"We're looking for a young frog. Just hand him over and we'll be off." Bonnie tried to negotiate with her kinsman, who seemed to consider the idea. "Oh, is that all? Well, in the case... to blazes with you!"

Luckily, the members of the gang weren't too good with their guns, so I guessed they were more used to just holding them in front of people's faces than actually firing them.

As for our Musketeers, every shot hit their mark, and it was littered Cats and Foxes as we entered close quarters combat. A Cat ran towards me, flailing his fists, and at the last minute, I ducked down to sweep his legs out from under him.

Nearby, Rena slammed the flat of her short sword into the back of a Fox's head, and Temeraire was grappling with a Cat's arms, wriggling just out of reach of his hands.

As Bonnie and Emmett reloaded, Jack and Ratbeard cleaved through the gang members with their cutlasses, and Old Scratch supported Monkey King and his doppelgängers with his hoodoo as El Toro swooped down on Dogs armed with broken wooden planks from above on his whip.

As the last member of the gang fell unconscious onto the floor, we regrouped in the center of the warehouse for a headcount to make sure we hadn't incurred any losses.

"So, did any of you see a Frog?" Ratbeard asked as he sheathed his cutlass, and the rest of us shook our heads, sheathing our weapons as El Toro spoke. "Perhaps the lawyer's nephew left of his own accord?"

This time, Bonnie shook her head as she pointed to a corner of the warehouse, where an old wooden trapdoor was painted to blend in almost perfectly with the grayish colors of the rough floor, and I wouldn't have noticed it if it weren't for Bonnie. "Look, a trapdoor! The rest of the gang must be down there."

El Toro nodded eagerly as he drew his foil again. "Excellent! More fighting! I mean... eh... quickly, after the nephew!"

Running over to the trapdoor, Bonnie opened it and led us down the ladder, and Rena was the last one to go down and enter the lower areas, and she made a remark. "More sewers. You take us to the loveliest places, Matt."

I grinned at her. "Don't I always? And anyway, it could be worse - we could be dancing on the rooftops of Chelsea Court chasing thieves! Now where do we go from here?"

"Surely, one of the local sewer folk can be _encouraged_ to tell us the whereabouts of our missing amphibian." El Toro said, gesturing meaningfully towards two nearby Foxes and a Dog, who hadn't yet noticed us. We all grinned evilly as we drew our weapons.

**XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX**

As the last conscious Fox was slammed against the walls of the sewer, he went cross-eyed as he gazed at the tip of my sword, barely just an inch away from his nose. "Crikey! Ease up, Cap'n! If yer lookin' fer the Frog, there's a drain room down the way what we use for lying low. Sure's yer born, he's in there, he is."

"Thank you." I said as I pointed my other weapon at him and pulled the trigger, stunning him with his own blunderbuss. Tossing the empty gun aside, we hurried to the drain room, where the other members of the gang looked up at us. "C'mon, lads! Get them!"

A Cat swung his meaty fists at me, and I ducked underneath his arms as I jabbed with my swords at his gut, sending him hunched over in pain as Rena shouted at the fore of the group. "Come on! We can't waste our time with these guys!"

Rena then hurled a smoke bomb that crashed onto the floor, giving us enough cover to escape the area and into the next one, where the remaining gang members were waiting with their guns, and their leader, a Fox with a red mustache shouted at us. "You best know this - we're Captain Swing's men! Mess with us, and you mess with him! So, who's sent ya? Black Jean? The Underdog?"

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Emmett preparing to fire, and while I might've let him do so in another situation, I had no idea if Nigel was watching, and if Emmett took a cheap shot, it would only convince Nigel that he was on the right, so I held up a hand to stop him. "Let me handle this."

Emmett reluctantly put his guns down to holster them, and then I answered the gang leader, undaunted by the name of the notorious Cat pirate who I knew prowled these skies and supported a group of radical Foxes terrorizing Marleybone. "Mr. Swidget, esquire."

The leader looked confusedly at me, but then his confusion turned to anger. "Swidget? Who the blazes... Enough! You've gone through a lot of trouble to get here. Hope your life was worth it!"

I responded by shooting the gang leader twice in the time he brought his gun up, then hurling my empty pistols to strike the heads of two gang members. Drawing my other two pistols, I shot them and hurled them, and while I wasn't as good with them as Rena was with her throwing knives and strikers, I managed to catch two fat Cats in their chests.

Picking up an empty Yum bottle off the floor, I smashed it in a Dog's face before using the broken bottleneck to cut up his friend, but not lethally. A reynard then took aim with his musket and caught my upper left arm, but I still had backup in the form of ten gunshots that he had no chance against, and the others took on the rest.

Monkey King threw his golden staff to a nearby Fox, who caught it by an instinct honed and developed by years of playing ball as a child, and I guess the golden staff must've been heavier than it looked, because the Fox fell to the floor and struggled to free his arms.

El Toro smacked a Cat with his whip in between the eyes, and Ratbeard hurled an empty crate at another one as Old Scratch sent various objects flying with his hoodoo. Jack and Rena had each other's backs as they fought against other Dogs armed with lengths of pipe, and before my arm had recovered from being shot, the gang was finished.

I then heard a noise come from behind me, and I spun around with my right sword to face a Frog about my age, wearing a stolen coat over a much less nicer shirt and trousers. "Gor' blimey, I hain't ever seen anyone as deadly as you, guvnor. This gangsterin's not for me no more. It's the straight and narrow from now on. I guess we'll just nip off and tell Uncle Swidget I'm alright then."

**XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX**

"By Jove, you did it! I must admit, I had my doubts... But I suppose pirates with your reputations must be of a higher caliber than most." Mr. Swidget said back at his office awhile later, and I shrugged. "Eh, we all try to be as honest and straightforward as a pirate can be."

Mr. Swidget nodded, and then he spoke. "I am a Frog of my word, Mr. Exeter. I promised to get you in to see Catbeard, and I shall."


	8. Chapter 8 - Cats in Glass Houses

"I'm afraid Catbeard is in some very hot water. He's accused of high treason and more than five hundred counts of smuggling. Hanging offenses!" Mr. Swidget said as I poured myself a cup of tea. "As such, he's been declared an enemy of the Crown, and that means no visitors. Only those directly assisting in his defense may see him. However, I've thought about it, and I believe I can get you in to see him. Meet me at Glass House Prison in your best suit, and I'll tell you how."

**XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX**

An hour later, I was in my quarters aboard the _Aquila_, getting dressed. A long navy blue coat was open over a white waistcoat, and tall, dark boots shone as they went up over the shins of my freshly-pressed trousers. Now all that was left was the cravat.

I never did like wearing cravats, nor wearing knee socks over breeches, and when I became a pirate, there were no posh parties for me to wear them to, so my fingers had forgotten how to tie my neckcloth as they fumbled on the cloth, and I cursed myself for being able to tie a perfect square knot a hundred and seventy-five feet above the spar deck, yet unable to tie a stupid cravat!

Rena, who was in my quarters with me, sighed in exasperation as she put down her book, and she strode over to me in front of the mirror. "Here, let me help you."

She gently pried my fingers away from the neckcloth, and my fingers felt tingly for some reason as one end of the cloth went over the other into a perfect cravat. "Thank you, Rena."

"You're welcome, Matt." Rena said, smiling up at me, and I then realized that I had grown since we had been arrested by the Armada almost a year ago, and that I was now taller than her by two inches.

"Come on, let's get you to Glass House Prison." Rena said as she took my hand, and I didn't protest as she led me out of my quarters.

**XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX**

"Halt! Who goes there!" A redcoat corporal asked suspiciously as Mr. Swidget and I entered Glass House Prison, and Mr. Swidget tipped his top hat off to the corporal. "Good day to you, Corporal Lams. It's me, Solicitor Swidget, to see Mr. Beard. I've brought along a colleague of mine from Port Regal."

Corporal Lams didn't appear to buying it, and Mr. Swidget continued on calmly, a trickle of sweat down the side of his head being the only indicator of his nervousness that I could see. "He's an expert on the applicable statutes of Port Regal ordinances vis-a-vis Marleybonean common law. I simply cannot do without him."

I nodded towards Corporal Lams, and he seemed to consider the idea. "Well... I suppose your say-so is good enough, Mr. Swidget. Go on in."

Mr. Swidget nodded, and I followed him to the door of one of the prison's waiting rooms, marked with a brass number 6 and guarded by a redcoat private, who nodded towards Mr. Swidget as he opened the door for us to step inside.

The waiting room was mostly empty, except for a small table with three chairs, one of which was occupied by a Cat with wild and dirty white fur and ragged striped prison clothes, and Mr. Swidget and I sat across from him. "Catbeard? Is that you, mate?"

Catbeard looked up at me, and his green eyes lit up in recognition. "Captain Exeter! Meow, meow, meow, it's you! Thank the stars! I'm mortified you have to see me in such a sorry state, but with all of this damp, I simply haven't been able to do a thing with my hair. I was wondering, would it be possible for you to do an eensy-weensy, tres petit favor for me?"

I hesitantly nodded, and he suddenly leaned over the table, and I felt unnerved as my blue eyes made contact with his wild green. "GET. ME. OUTTA HERE!"

"Pray calm yourself, Mr. Beard. There is no need to speak in caps-lock." I said, going for a formality as fitting for a lawyer, and Catbeard took a deep breath to steady himself before continuing on. "You've got to get me out of here, do you understand? Look at what they're making me wear! Do you know what passes for grooming in this place?"

"Wait - I know why you're here. A certain Map piece, hmm?" Catbeard asked, and I nodded. "Now don't worry, it's safe. I'll tell you exactly where it is - IF you secure my freedom."

"How?" I asked, and Catbeard answered. "Mr. Swidget here has a plan, and all the juicy details. And now that you're here, I think it just might work... Alright. Calm... I am calm. Oh, Captain Exeter, it's grand to be working together again! What great fun we'll have!"

Mr. Swidget then took over. "Her Majesty has issued an emergency decree: any qualified sailor may be released, ah, on parole, into the custody of an officer in the Royal Navy. Unfortunately... er... we haven't been able to find an officer willing to take responsibility for Mr. Beard. His, ah... reputation precedes him. But the Admiralty will commission any, ah... civilian captain as an irregular of the Royal Navy. Another emergency decree, you see."

From there, I pieced together the puzzle. "So, you want me to go to the Admiralty and apply for an emergency captain's commission so I can take custody of Catbeard?"

"That is correct." Mr. Swidget answered, and I nodded as I stood up from my chair. "I'll be about it, then."


	9. Chapter 9 - 'Tis to Glory We Steer

"Oh, more irregular applicants, eh? Well, we're not letting in every deckhand who wanders up from the docks." The otter captain inside the Admiralty Foyer said as he examined us closely, apparently not liking what he was seeing. "You'll have to prove yourself first. Go out and disable an Armada fortress, and then you may see the Admiralty board."

"I guess the other Armada fortresses we attacked don't count?" Rena muttered under her breath, and I whispered back. "Best not bring that up... considering the results."

Giving a naval salute to Captain Aubrey, we left the Admiralty building in Barkeley Square to return to our ships, where we immediately set sail out into Westminster Skyway.

**XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX**

Not long after we had left port, the _Aquila's _bow was pointed perpendicular to the wind on a beam reach, the _Santo Oro _following close behind to form a two-ship line of battle, and from the quarterdeck, I could see three Armada brig-sloops coming towards us, more heavily armed than other ships of their class due to having their unneeded berth decks converted into second gun decks for their cannons.

"We'll need to fight our way through those Armada ships to get to that fortress. Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war!" Jack called, and the men topside cheered as they raised their fists. Opening the quarterdeck's hatch down to the gun deck, I called to the gun crews. "Larboard battery, prepare to rake their bows!"

"Run out, boys!" I heard a gun captain shout, and a second later, the left side of the _Aquila _flashed fire as cannonballs burst from her guns, many of them hitting their mark and disabling the brig-sloops' chase guns on their bows, allowing the _Santo Oro, _which was less heavily-armed than the _Aquila _was, to finish them off.

"The wind's shifting, Captain!" A lookout shouted from the rigging, and I waved to him in acknowledgement. "Jack, let me take the wheel."

My first mate nodded as I took hold of two of the wheel's pegs, and he let go for me to properly steer the _Aquila_. A glance up at the telltale atop the mainmast told me the wind had shifted its position to its right, meaning that the _Aquila _could go on a close haul towards the Armada fortress, softening up its defenses with her chase guns on the bow as she went.

"Bow chasers, prepare to fire!" Jack shouted down the hatch, and as the _Aquila _grew steadily closer, the bow chasers made more and more holes in the Armada fortress until we got into close quarters, the gun crews already topside to board the fortress.

Led by David Clutterbuck, armed with sword and pistol, almost the entire crew leapt aboard the fortress, smashing any Clockworks that dared to get in their way.

Grapeshot fired from our swivel guns wreaked havoc amidst the Clockworks as grenades were thrown, and the blade of a halberd dug into the wood of a thick boarding pike held above my head in a quarterstaff parry.

Quickly kicking my attacker in the chest, I stabbed the Clockwork marine with the pike and left it there as I ran over to an open hatch and took an unlit grenade from an ally, sword in hand. "Grenade!"

Hurling the bomb downstairs, it exploded a second later, hopefully taking a few Clockworks with it as more were thrown down the stairs, and leading the charge down below decks, I drew my sword to stab a remaining Clockwork musketeer about to fire his gun.

Rena's crew appeared at another companionway, and the Clockworks had no chance as their rear was attacked, crushed in a pincer maneuver. As the last Clockwork was defeated, I sheathed my sword as Rena spoke to me. "Ha! That'll show those stuffed shirts who knows how to capture a fortress!"

"Let's get back to the Admiralty and get our commissions then." I said, and we turned to leave for our respective ships. Leaving the crew of the _Santo Oro _under Milo Graytail behind to man the fortress until more permanent troops could be established, the _Aquila _set sail to return to Marleybone City.

**XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX**

Captain Aubrey wouldn't have believed our report, if it weren't the written eyewitness accounts of several officers aboard a passing Royal Navy frigate in his hands. "Captured the fortress, you say? Well, perhaps the service may have use for you two after all. Go in."


	10. Chapter 10 - The Guns of Marleybone

The centerpiece of the Admiralty building's wardroom was a giant map on a table, depicting the skyways of the Spiral, and it was here that Admiral Kearns spoke to me and Rena."So you two are here or commissions, have you? Now hear this: the captains of the Royal Navy are the elite, the finest commanders in all the Spiral."

"And what are you, a smuggler? A brawler? Do you think we have any need for your sort in Her Majesty's navy?" Admiral Doggett demanded, and though it was kinda hard to take the short old Bulldog seriously, considering he only went up to my thighs, I was beginning to suspect that I hated these admirals when another voice spoke.

_"I _think we need every bold soul we can muster. So far, all our elite can do is lose. I like the look of these captains, pirate or woman or no. Proceed." The voice said, and as I turned around to see who it was, I had to force myself to not scream in extreme joy. It was Lord Nelson, Marleybone's greatest ever naval hero!

"M-Matthew Exeter, sir. W-would you do me the honor of letting me shake you by the hand..." I stopped myself as I saw the Greyhound's stump of right arm, amputated at the elbow, and I hastily withdrew my right hand in red-faced embarrassment. "Oh dear, this is a bit embarrassing... B-but I'm a great admirer of all your work. The battle of the Nile, the battle of Copenhagen..."

Lord Nelson seemed amused as he held out his left hand, and I eagerly shook with a trembling hand. When our handshake ended, I felt like I had just touched the hem of Jesus's robe, and Lord Nelson spoke. "Don't worry, it happens all the time. Got hit in the arm by a bullet, then had to have it hacked off by a saw. Didn't see it coming because I had something in my eye: a large piece of shrapnel; can't see out of the blasted thing now."

Admiral Doggett rolled his eyes as he cleared his throat to regain our attention, and I hastily turned to look down at him. "The situation is deteriorating rapidly. The Valencian fleet has overwhelmed our forces, at least for the present."

Admiral Doggett then hopped up onto a stool, and pointed to a figure on the western end of the skyway's map. "Worse, the Clockworks have towed something into the skyway - an armored station they're using to supply and repair their ships."

"The blasted thing's huge, and so heavily armored that a bombardment by the entire fleet would barely make a dent in it." Admiral Kearns said, and Admiral Doggett brought out blueprints that we all crowded around to see. "These artillery batteries here are the real threat. They're not working yet, but when they are, they'll have enough range to hit Marleybone City."

"Imagine it: the fiends will be able to pound Big Ben into rubble, and we'd be powerless to stop them. _If _they can get the guns working." Admiral Kearns said, and we all fell into a grim silence at the thought of Big Ben collapsing in on itself amidst the rubble of the city. Admiral Doggett then spoke. "That's where you come in. We need you to dock at that station, force your way in, and disable the guns."

"Report to the dry docks and find engineer Conrad. She's an expert on Clockwork engineering - she'll accompany you and assist with the sabotage." Admiral Kearns said, and Rena raised her hand slightly to ask a question; a bit elementary, but the admirals let it slide. "Yes?"

"Are you out of your minds?" Rena demanded as she pointed at the blueprints, marked as _Beachhead Station. _"Two ships and two crews against _that? It's a suicide mission!" _

"Rena!" I spoke sharply to her, and she quieted down enough for Admiral Kearns to speak sternly at us. "If you're to be captains in the Royal Navy, you'll have no end of those. Marleybone expects every man will do his duty. Good hunting."

"Good day to you, sirs, Lord Nelson." I said, giving each dog a naval salute before striding out of wardroom and out of the Admiralty building, Rena following close behind.

**XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX**

"Hello there! And you two are?" Engineer Conrad asked a few minutes later at the dry docks, and I'm afraid I was a bit rude in introducing myself, as I was busy glancing at the sorry state of the Royal Navy ships in the dry dock, their hulls full of holes from cannon fire, than actually looking at who I was speaking to. "I'm Matthew Exeter, and this is Rena Raden. We're here to take you to the Armada's Beachhead Station."

"Smashing! Nobody else would volunteer, eh?" Engineer Conrad asked, and Rena and I shook our heads. "Anyway, Gracie Conrad, junior engineer. Nice to make your acquaintance."

"The feeling is mutual." I said as we shook hands. Gracie Conrad was a black terrier with a white stripe down her nose between her bright blue eyes, and she wore a brown newsboy's cap and a pair of goggles with a white collared shirt, brown breeches held up by black suspenders and a toolbelt, white knee socks, and black shoes with brass buckles on them.

"Well, I'm ready to go when you two are. Lead on!" Then a thought seem to occur to the engineer. "Oh wait, there's a few things we need to get before we go..."

**XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX**

"Be careful with those! They're full of pure gelignite. One good bump and they'll blow half the island to bits!" Gracie called to the crewmen hauling the crates aboard the _Aquila, _and she turned cheerfully towards me, apparently unaware of the sheer _joy_ I was feeling at the thought of carrying highly dangerous explosives aboard my beloved ship. "Now, let's be off!"

Not exactly eager for the moment of my ship's destruction in an awesome explosion, I, for once in my life, hesitantly stepped aboard the _Aquila, _and soon, she was off for Beachhead Station, the _Santo Oro, _captained by Rena's first mate, following close behind.

**XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX**

"Look at that, would ye! The bit up top looks like a giant salad spoon!" Bonnie cried as she pointed to the top of Beachhead Station, and Rena answered. "That's no spoon... It's a sky station."

"Look at the size of that thing!" El Toro whispered, and Ratbeard snapped at them as he gripped the rope to the bell on the quarterdeck. "Quit yer chatterin' - arm yerself for the fight to come!"

"Battle stations!" I shouted, and Rena shouted as well as Bonnie and the topmen hurried to their posts up in the rigging. "Rouse the off watch, and beat to quarters!"

As an Armada ship sailed towards us, Jack opened a hatch and shouted down to the gun deck using a speaking trumpet. "Starboard battery, run out and rake her bow!"

A second later, the cannons emerged from their gun ports and fired, knocking holes into the Armada ship's bow that revealed her powder store, and the swivel gunners wasted no time in blowing her to matchsticks.

Behind us, the _Santo Oro's _stern chasers were booming as they kept a pair of gunboats busy, and more Armada ships were closing in on us as we drew closer to the station's docks, which had a pair of giant metal doors that was closing conveniently slowly.

"This is it! The guns are no use - full speed ahead and dock before they can destroy the ships!" Gracie said to me, and I nodded as someone shouted from the poop deck. "Twelve knots, sir!"

"That's good, but I want more. Set stunsails!" I shouted up to the rigging, and additional sails were set at the end of the yards to catch more of the wind at our backs. "Come on, come on...!"

As the stern of the _Santo Oro _cleared the doors to the harbor, the men topside cheered as the way in was blocked, preventing any Armada ships from coming in, but our happiness did not last long, and it ended with a shout from Ratbeard. "They're ready for us! I knew this was a terrible plan!"

"Come now, afraid of a few Clockworks, are we? Have at you!" Jack said, and with me and the rest of my trusted associates, we leapt away from the quarterdeck and onto the dock. A second landing party would go and find the harbor controls, while the rest stood guard aboard the ships, ready to repel any Clockwork boarders that came too close.

A firing line of Clockwork rifles went off, but a Valor's Fortress stopped their bursts of electricity from connecting, and the wall shattered into pieces that hurled themselves like glowing blue shrapnel at the musketeers, taking them out in a little trick I've been working on.

"You have to tell me how you do that, sir!" Gracie called from beside me with her red monkey wrench, and I took a moment to grin at her. "I don't think I can, but watch this!"

As I spoke with Gracie, small blue fireballs began to appear and glow in a ring around the tips of my swords, and they flew towards Clockwork marines and exploded on impact, taking them out as the others engaged the straggling Clockworks.

Gracie swung her monkey wrench into the back of a Clockwork marine kept busy by Monkey King's rapid-fire thrusts, and El Toro laughed as he slapped another one silly with his foil. Ratbeard and Jack cleaved through the opposition with their cutlasses, and Bonnie and Emmett were reloading their guns as Rena covered them.

"Here goes!" I shouted as gunshots struck the wall of blue translucent hexagons in front of me, which successfully blocked the attacks but shattered into pieces that reassembled themselves into swords in another power boost the author felt was needed to change things up after so long. "Swords of Light!"

The swords aimed their tips at the remaining Clockworks, and before they could even get out of the way, they were skewered, and sheathing my weapons, I ran to join the others at the door leading into the main building, where Emmett whistled as he stared up at the door, a tall block and imposing metal. "I say, that's quite the door. Locked tight, I expect."

Gracie nodded, and she was already working on splicing red wires crackling with electricity in a nearby open metal panel. "Yes, but I can get it open. Come on, we've got a job to do!"

The door slid open, and we came across what seemed to be an entire shaft with its inner walls covered in gears and cogs bigger than the face of Big Ben, and Ratbeard whistled as we walked on the catwalk. "Bowsprits and barnacles! Have ye ever seen the like?"

"Amazing! Such a brilliant design. If only the College of Engineers could see this..." Gracie murmured as she gazed all around us, but her train of thought was interrupted by Bonnie Anne. "Watch yer step, it's a long way down, and a long way up, too! So, lass, which way do we go?"

Gracie thought for a moment, and then pointed to a nearby ramp. "The guns we need to knock out are at the ends of the three spokes, and in the main battery up top. That must lead up to the first gun platform - come on!"


	11. Chapter 11 - It's Sabotage! (Part 1)

As we ran up the ramp, we soon came across a small platoon of Clockworks, and Rena made a remark as we braced ourselves. "I see our old friends are waiting for us! Let's give to 'em!"

At Rena, whatever projectiles we had on hand were launched, and one squad was taken out as the other charged towards us, guns blazing. As my wall of blue hexagons shattered into pieces, my trusted associates rushed forward in an all-out attack as I rested from using so much of my power, but that didn't mean that my fingers couldn't pull triggers.

I took my time reloading my pistol as I skirted around the battle unnoticed, focusing mostly on my loading: rip top off powder cartridge, fill priming pan halfway, pour powder down barrel, shove musket ball and crumpled cartridge down with ramrod, cock hammer back, and pull trigger at unlucky Clockwork. Easy as _pi_.

As the last Clockwork fell onto the deck with a crater in the back of his head, we heard the sound of flapping wings. "What in the Spiral are those things?"

The new Clockworks landed nimbly onto whatever perches were available, canvas wings on wooden frames folded against their backs. Aquilan helmets protected their heads, which had lifelessly feminine features permanently carved into their emotionless faces as they aimed their pistols at us in one hand, and held rapiers in the other. "Intruders! Surrender immediately or you will suffer!"

Battle angels, the Armada's elite warriors. I've heard reports from other pirates that they scouted out the skyways for the Armada and guard important prisoners. My train of thought was then broken by Bonnie. "Never! Let's get them!"

As the first Clockwork battle angels fell and shattered on the decks, the others flapped themselves into the air, still easy targets for Bonnie and her eagle's eye, or should I say fox's eye?

They circled us in the air like vultures, and with a steady motion in the air, the battle angels could now aim their pistols properly, and one managed to get me in the hand, forcing me to drop my pistol. Cursing Rena for teaching me ungentlemanly language in the first place, I fasted one of the buttons to the other side of my coat and slung my stunned arm inside.

"Gracie!" I called, and the junior engineer nodded as she broke away from the fight to join me. "I assume you want to sabotage the guns while the guards are busy?"

I nodded, and Gracie led me up to the spoke's gun battery, where several large metal shells the size of barrels were lain horizontally onto curved bars. Upon inspection, I found that the shells were _explosive. _No wonder this place was so huge; if we tried to fire these things from a ship, the gun carriages would roll back from recoil straight out the other bulkhead! "Well, there are the cannons, so now what?"

Gracie took a moment to examine all the machinery as the battle raged on outside, but I knew my trusted associates would be alright. They had to be... right? "It looks like they must use these machines to load the guns mechanically. Time to break out the gelignite."

Taking several charges of gelignite, I strapped them onto the machines with an important engineering tool that Gracie called duct tape and lit the fuses. Hiding behind the guns, the loading mechanisms exploded, and Gracie brushed off her gloves. "Well done. Now, if I'm right, they'll store the ammunition down below. Let's go stick a spanner in the works!"

"Let's." I agreed, and I followed her down to the spoke's hold, where I whistled at all of the explosive shells lined up neatly on the racks, and Gracie glanced around. "Hmmm... She's well built, all right, but a few well-placed charges ought to tear things up well and good. Let's get to work!"

Some more gelignite, duct tape, and some really fast running away later, the hold looked like someone had dropped a bomb inside, which was the case here, and Gracie and I cheered as the last gelignite charge exploded, taking with it the last of the shells in even bigger explosions. "One spoke down, two to go! Let's go take the next one!"

**A/N: I'm sorry that this chapter was so short, and I'm afraid I have more bad news: as of September 30th, 2013, I'm going to have to slow down my fanfic writing down to one chapter a week to make room for writing my English assessment and my original short story, ****_Sailor's Beginning. _****:( I'm sorry for any inconvenience, but while you're waiting, go check out my short story! I'd really like some feedback! :)**


	12. Chapter 12 - It's Sabotage! (Part 2)

"Saboteurs located. Commence attack!" The leader of the Armada marines shouted in its mechanical tone as its subordinates charged, and Monkey King sighed as he readied his golden staff. "The mechanical men, they don't give up, do they? The celestial ministers were easier to argue with!"

"Commence defensive assault!" An Armada musketeer then called to his firing line, and then the fight broke out. As the others fought, I spotted a cannon lying unattended nearby, and in two cleaves of my sword, the gun tackles keeping it from rolling around on the deck were severed.

The implements of gunnery were on a rack nearby, and after shoving a sponge-tipped rod down the barrel of the gun, I rammed home the powder cartridge, as well as the wad and shot before priming it with a nearby powder horn. "Everyone, get clear!"

The others leapt out of the fray just in time to avoid the gun carriage barreling across the deck, running over unlucky Clockworks as well as sending others flying. The stragglers met quick ends with the help of our firearms, and soon, our gelignite charges exploded and took the loading mechanisms of the station's guns with them.

We then heard a loud whistle, and we looked to see Gracie call from near the top of a stairwell. "Right then, let's go below."

"Hmm, I wonder if we'll find more Clockworks down there? Let's get this over with." Bonnie said as she readied her loaded rifle, and we followed Gracie down to the hold, bathed in a turquoise glow.

"What is this place?" Ratbeard whispered, and Old Scratch gripped his staff tighter with his bony fingers, pun intended. "Somethin' strange be here, Captain my Captain. Beware."

"It looks like... a workshop. For a madman." Gracie said as she glanced around at all the mechanical devices, worktables, and bookshelves. Seeing no guards about, we split up to explore the workshop, weapons still at the ready, and among the mechanical curiosities, I found something interesting.

It was a mask, built to look like the two halves of a dark blue metallic skull, connected by what seemed to be sailcloth, but when I turned the mask onto its back, I could see that the sailcloth was actually red velvet meant to cushion the wearer's face.

On the inside of the mask, I could see three telescopic lenses of varying sizes in the right eye, controlled by a focusing wheel on the side of the mask. As I glanced at Rena not too far off, a slight smile came to my face as I put the mask on.

Creeping up silently behind her, I tapped her on the shoulder, and Rena yelped as she dropped the book she was reading and leapt up onto the table like a startled cat, much to my amusement, looking both embarrassed and angry at the same time. "Matthew, you-!"

I chuckled as I took the mask off and shook my head to loosen up the compressed hairs on my head. "I'm afraid it's a bad habit I picked up from you when we were little. I'm keeping the mask, but I promise it won't happen again."

"It better not, you bastard." I heard Rena mutter as I turned around, but I knew she had already forgiven me and my little joke as I put the mask inside my coat. We then heard Bonnie call out from a lower level. "Hey, look! It's one of the golden wheels, from the Isle of Doom!"

As Rena and I rushed to join Bonnie and the others down below, we heard Gracie ask her a question. "You know what this is?"

Bonnie Anne nodded as she glanced at the strange golden wheel, which the size of a dinner table and was bolted to an even stranger machine "Aye, it's an ancient carving - there's a lot of them in the ancient lizard ruins back on Skull Island."

"But that doesn't explain why have the Clockworks bolted it to this machine." Rena said, and before she could inquire further, El Toro brought his own question as he stood in front of a large machine with large, grooved gears. "Excuse me, what precisely is this?"

"Don't touch that!" Gracie cried out as El Toro brought the tip of his foil out to poke it, and he stopped as she explained what it was. "This is a magic lantern - it's a kind of camera, but instead of making a photograph, it can capture a moving image. Something's been recorded recently, and we can use this to see what they've recorded."

"Magic?" Ratbeard asked, and I knew he was thinking about our landlord and master sorcerer, Nikolai Volkov. Gracie answered as she grabbed hold of a lever. "Not wizard magic. It involves refracted light spun through... oh, never mind. Here - let's get it set up."

Gracie then heaved on the lever, and beams of light shone through a central lens to depict a hunched Clockwork that looked like a cardinal wearing a beaked plague mask. He held a staff tipped with two gears, and El Toro swung his foil through the image in surprise. "Gah! Who are you? Answer or feel the wrath of El Toro!"

Gracie's spanner then hit the back of El Toro lightly, like a schoolmaster swinging his hickory switch to discipline a pupil. "It can't hear you! It's just a picture that moves. That's Bishop, Kane's mad tinkerer. Listen!"

The image of Bishop then spoke in his mechanical, yet slightly raspy tone, which startled us into silence as he bowed to us, or rather, to whomever the recording was addressed to. "Supreme Commander Kane, greetings from Marleybone. General Rooke is, as you know, engaged elsewhere. Thus, it falls to me to send this report."

An image of a table with a map of Westminster Skyway, complete with models of ships and locations, then appeared in front of Bishop, like he was going to show us his master plan. "The campaign proceeds according to plan. If events follow current trends, I project Marleybone's surrender within a week. The endgame is imminent."

Bishop then scooped up an Armada fleet near Beachhead Station with an L-shaped rod, and pulled them towards an island to the southeast of the Isle of Dogs, where the Armada ships automatically deployed their deck mortars to bomb the island. "Step one: a naval assault on the Isle of Fetch, last bastion of the Marleybonian defense."

I then gulped as a (generally) loyal subject of the Queen as Bishop pulled an Armada fleet from near the Stormgate to MooShu. "Step two: General Rooke uses our new treaty with MooShu to launch a massive new attack into Marleybone, not from Valencia, but through Hamamitsu."

My insides then tied themselves into various knots as Bishop hooked a Royal Navy fleet towards the Isle of Fetch, and then pulled Rooke's fleet towards the Royal Navy's flank. "With the Royal Navy's attention focused on the Isle of Fetch, Rooke's attack will take them completely by surprise."

The knots inside me then tightened until I was almost choking at the tiny _pew-pew _sounds of the two Armada fleets broadsiding the Royal Navy, and Bishop moved on to step three. "Once the Royal Navy is destroyed, this station's cannons bombard Marleybone into submission in a matter of days. Checkmate."

We were all dead silent as a tiny white flag rose from the rubble of the model's Big Ben, but Bishop wasn't finished yet, and he shrunk to make room for a blackboard and worktable, both with what seemed to be pigeons and the golden wheel before us. "On a more personal note, I long for a swift end to this wasteful conflict, so that I may return my full attentions to the Grand Design."

"I trust you are making progress with the Celestian computations, and regret I can report little progress in the matter of the Clockwork birds." Bishop said, gesturing to the pigeons on the nearby worktable, which I now realized were mechanical by the keys in their backs.

"I can confirm that your suspicions about their maker are correct, and I have identified the markings on their gears as Aquilan Linear B. But what the inscriptions say, or why the Toymaker should send so many of his birds into Valencia and Marleybone remains a mystery. Working diligently towards total victory, I remain your loyal servant, Bishop. The Armada prevails."

I stood there along with the others in silence, pondering what the recording just told us. Commander Emmett was the first to speak. "I say, we need to get this information back to the admirals, at once!"

Gracie shook her head as she rested her spanner over her shoulders. "No! The job's not done. We've got two more guns to sort out. The Clockworks? Bring them on - are you afraid?"

Our answers were then interrupted by a mechanical, raspy tone that _should've _ended with the recording. "What is this? How did you get in here? Lay down your weapons - you are my prisoners!"

"Not a chance, bird brain! Ye're _our _prisoner!" Ratbeard said, and if Bishop had proper eyes instead of lenses, he probably would've rolled them. "Oh dear. Guards! Eradicate them!"

Bishop disappeared as his guards rushed forward. As one Clockwork marine brought his halberd down, I brought my swords up to block his cleave, and as I pushed him away, him stumbled in an opening for me to attack with two thrusts with the tips of my swords.

Two holes in a breastplate later, I was onto my next opponent: a Clockwork musketeer with a bayonet fixed near the mouth of his musket barrel. Parrying a thrust as I sheathed my left sword, I drew a pistol to shoot him in the head.

Near me, Rena parried a Clockwork's bayonet as Emmett shot him from behind, and Bonnie had unloaded her rifle's chamber into a whole firing line. Jack cleaved a marine's head right off its metal shoulders, and Old Scratch made the weapons of the fallen Clockworks hurl themselves towards the comrades of their owners.

Ratbeard had somehow acquired an empty bottle, which he slammed into a marine's face as El Toro whipped the cocked hat off a Clockwork's white wig as he was strangled by Temeraire. As Monkey King's staff and Gracie's monkey wrench slammed onto the heads of the remaining two Clockworks, we stood among the scattered pieces of scrap metal as the victors.


	13. Chapter 13 - It's Sabotage! (Part 3)

"Saboteurs identified! Incapacitate them!" An Armada marine said monotonously as we entered the third spoke of Beachhead Station, and as my wall broke into blue hexagons, El Toro rushed forward with his foil to engage the first wave of Clockworks.

Having fought so many battles over the last year, they began to blur together as I fought, and as I parried a Clockwork marine's halberd, I vaguely remembered doing the same with the spear of a Monquistador.

Over the gunshots and the clashing of steel against steel, I heard El Toro cry out from his battle with a Clockwork musketeer's bayonet, which he parried off to his side. "The Clockworks are getting stronger! I fear we have kicked a hornet's nest!"

"Confound the Clockworks! Full speed ahead!" Gracie shouted as she swung her spanner into the back of an unaware Clockwork's head, and just as we seemed to be getting the upper hand, Bishop arrived with reinforcements. "Shall we try again? I don't know why you've come, but your meddling in this station ends. Now!"

As I turned to look at him, I saw the lenses he called eyes zoom in and focus on each of us in turn. "Wait - I know you. You're the pirates who destroyed Deacon! Oh my. Kane must be notified at once!"

"Over my dead body!" I said, feeling my heart emit with a slight warmth as I concentrated on making a sword of light aimed right at Bishop, and just as the tip was taking shape, I suddenly felt my heart stop beating for a moment as it grew cold.

I then looked to see my sword of light shatter into tiny pieces, and then I noticed unarmed Clockwork marines holding up what seemed to be speakers harnessed to their chests. As I listened to the whir of the machine playing from the speakers, I suddenly dropped my swords as I felt pain explode in my head, like someone had lit an inferno inside.

I bent over, clutching my head in pain as I shut my eyes tight, and then I felt a hand on my back as the voice of my best friend spoke to me gently. "Matt, are you alright?"

I could barely shake my head through the pain, but I did hear Rena's voice shout to Bishop. "What have you done to him, you-"

My gentlemanly upbringing never failed to make me blush at Rena's occasional usage of _very_ unladylike language, and even with the pain in my head, this was no exception as Bishop spoke. "These devices produce mathematically pure notes that render the magical energies of El Dorado inert through counterbalancing mathematical principles."

_What the-? Energies of El Dorado? _I thought to myself, but that thought was quickly banished by the pain, which sharply grew with the volume and made me collapse onto the deck, groaning. "Matt!"

As I heard Rena's feet move quickly across the deck, someone forcibly pried one of my arms away from my head and slung it over their shoulders, and their words gave my mind something to hold onto."Stay with me! Let's deal with this gun and be done!"

I dimly nodded as Gracie muttered words of encouragement, and as we grew farther away from that awful music, I felt the pain in my head lessen and lessen. Gracie set me to lean against the barrel of the large gun as she sabotaged its munitions, and somehow, the small explosions made by the gelignite seemed to banish the remnants of the pain as the engineer turned around to look at me."Let's go below!"

I nodded as I pushed myself off the floor, and I followed Gracie to a stairwell near the gun that spiraled counterclockwise to give right-handed defenders coming from below more room to swing their weapons, and I frowned as we entered the hold. "No Clockworks? Can it be that they've finally run out?"

"I think they fear you, Captain Exeter. But I wonder... is this a good thing?" Gracie wondered aloud. "I mean, look at it. Those music boxes only affected you - Old Scratch was able to use his hoodoo just fine. If they built a weapon designed specifically to deal with you..."

I gulped. If those "music boxes" were the first of a line of anti-Matt weapons, who knows what else the Clockworks had in store? And what did Bishop mean by _the energies of El Dorado? _

In a nervous habit that I developed since gaining my powers but never came into play often, I snapped my fingers to create a small blue fireball in palm, but no flame came. I was immensely troubled by what that could possibly mean, but Gracie's voice broke me out of my thoughts before I could go any further. "That's done. Now, let's get back and deal with the main battery!"


	14. Chapter 14 - Mission Improbable

"Three down, the biggest to go! Let's take that lift up to the main battery!" Gracie said as she pointed to a nearby gear-shaped platform with a grate-covered pillar spiraling up its center.

As the rest of us boarded the lift, Gracie pulled the nearby lever with her spanner, and soon, we were slowly ascending up the pillar, each of us armed with a musket from a fallen Clockwork.

As we reached the top of the lift's shaft, the opening in the platform's fence faced a ramp leading down to a floor full of patrolling Clockworks, and if they didn't noticed us before, they sure did now as we cocked the hammers back on our flintlock muskets and picked out our targets.

The leader of the Clockworks, a battle angel, aimed her pistol at us along with the Clockwork musketeers as the marines stood at the base of the ramp. "Entry is forbidden! Incapacitate the intruders!"

"Ready for more, I see! Shall we dance?" El Toro cried down to the Clockworks, and on a silent count of three, we opened fire. The marines that began charging up the ramp now crashed into their comrades behind them, stunned by our bursts of electricity, and the Clockwork musketeers on the ground weren't much better.

As they fired their shots, the three most agile of us swashbucklers, Rena, El Toro, and Monkey King, leapt onto the beams above the remaining Clockworks' heads and swooped down on them like angry birds, taking all of the survivors out.

"Alright, let's get upstairs and take a look at the main guns!" Gracie said, dropping her ammunition-less gun, and we followed her as she raced up the stairwell on the other side of the room, where Bishop and the remains of the station's Clockwork garrison were waiting for us.

"I can only assume, pirates, that you have come to sabotage this station's artillery." Bishop said, gesturing with his gear-tipped staff to the gun of the main battery behind him, and without waiting for an answer, he continued. "If I may speak frankly, what a puny plan."

All I wanted was to shut him up, but thanks to the music box-wearing marines to his sides, my powers were useless, even with the machines set at a low hum. Bonnie couldn't get a good shot at him either, so all we could do was let Bishop continue.

"This station is the pinnacle of Armada artistry and engineering - your attempts to sabotage it are doomed to failure." Bishop said, gesturing again to a particularly large and impressive screw spiraling in the center of the station that I assumed aimed the main gun turret. "Beachhead is indestructible."

"Rooke was so looking forward to destroying you in revenge for Deacon. A pity I shall deny him his opportunity by finishing you - NOW!" Bishop said, and as Bonnie and Emmett prepared to fire, the marines guarding Bishop heaved on levers to the sides of their music boxes, creating powerful blasts of wind that threw all of us off our feet.

Bonnie was the first to recover, and she managed to blast the two marines in the head while sitting on her bum, but I still couldn't use my powers yet, as a low hum could still be heard pulsating from the thick base of Bishop's staff.

"Cover me while I go after Bishop!" I shouted to the others, who nodded as I barreled past several Clockworks and into the forest of steel.

I wasn't a fighter anymore, but a cyclone of steel as I parried and slashed at the faceless Clockworks all around me, and before I knew it, I was breathing hard and surrounded by destroyed Clockworks in front of a bemused Bishop. "You are indeed as unpredictable as Deacon thought. Another time, Ghost of the Skies."

For such a skinny-looking Clockwork, Bishop sure was fast, or at least quick enough to avoid my tired slashes, and Ratbeard stamped his peg leg on the floor. "Confound it, Bird Brain's flown the coop! Still, he's left us his toys to play with!"

Gracie snorted in derision as she looked all around her with a biased eye. "Let's take a look at the _'pinnacle of Armada artistry.'_ Indestructible, he says - we'll see about that!"

**XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX**

"I'm afraid Bishop may be right. Look - that's chromium steel! All the gelignite we brought wouldn't be enough." Gracie said after her inspection a few minutes later. "I don't think we can destroy-"

Gracie then took several quick glances at all the pipes all around us, and then snapped her fingers. "Wait a moment. The hydraulics! They're using volatile fluid, but there's no pressure compensator!"

"What the devil does all that mean?" Bonnie asked, confused, and Rena answered for Gracie. "I believe she means that we can make the main gun useless by evaporating the liquid in the hydraulics used to turn and aim it."

Gracie nodded. "Finally, someone outside the College who gets engineering! We need to take the lift - all the way down."

**XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX**

Rena whistled as she led us from the lift into the engineering section of the station. "Amazing! Who knew there were ever so many gears?"

Gracie was too busy gazing down at the catwalks to listen, and she pointed at a series of mechanisms that looked like vials filled with glowing liquid in the holes of giant gears. "I'm right - we can do this! Listen, the Clockworks are using hydraulics - hot liquid under high pressure - to turn and aim the big gun."

Gracie then pointed to another mechanism that was much larger than the others, and set in the middle of the shaft we were in. "That big piston there regulates the entire system. If we lower it into the main boiler down there, the pressure will build. If we jam it in there so it can't be raised, the pressure will build until the whole works burst!"

"If we trip those actuator switches there on the catwalks and then break the mechanisms, we'll jam the piston down. Let's go!" Gracie said, and I saw El Toro turn to ask Ratbeard a question. "Did you follow any of that?"

"What's a piston?" Ratbeard asked, and Bonnie did me a favor by slapping the backs of both their heads like schoolchildren. "Oh, knock it off, already! If we flip the switches, the gun will blow up. Get it? Now go, ye big oafs!"

When we caught up with Gracie, she was already tripping the first switch. As she slammed her spanner into the glass vial, it broke and the piston dropped with a storm of electrical power, the force making the whole shaft tremble. "Whoa! This plan o' yers, missy -are ye sure it'll work?"

"It'll work! Just keep moving!" Gracie told Ratbeard, and we moved onto the second switch on the catwalk below.

"Throw the switch!" Gracie called to Ratbeard, the closest one to the switch, and he called back. "Throwing third switch!"

"Second switch!" Gracie corrected, and Ratbeard called back again. "Whatever!"

Ratbeard tripped the switch and broke the vial with his cutlass, and as we ran down to the third catwalk, El Toro asked me a question. "When we throw all the switches and the station explodes, we will no longer be inside it, yes? I hope not..."

"Me too..." I answered as we reached the third switch, and then Gracie called to El Toro beside me. "Throw the third switch!"

"Not... the third switch?" El Toro asked, and Gracie shouted again in frustration. "Throw it, I say!"

"Here it goes!" El Toro called, and after tripping the switch and breaking the vial in the handle, Gracie nodded and gestured for us to move it. "One switch left!"

When we got to the fourth switch, a surprise guest was waiting for us: Bishop, and with a couple more guards, too. "I have analyzed your attack, and I must say... I'm impressed. You and your crew are far more technically capable than you look, but I cannot allow you to succeed! This station will prevail, and my genius shall endure! Guards! Destroy them!"

Ha ha ha, no thank you, Bishop. Before the Clockworks could engage us in close quarters combat, I ran over to the switch to trip it, and as the glass vial went sideways, I slashed it in half and spilled the sizzling hot liquid all over the deck.

An alarm rang out as all of the lights turned red, and as everyone looked around in confusion, I saw Bishop slowly inching away towards a nearby hatch. "Unthinkable! The station is lost! Evacuate!"

"Farewell, mechanical man - we will meet again." Monkey King said darkly as the Clockworks moved stiffly to escape, and Ratbeard asked, "Wait, will we have time to get out before the place explodes?"

"Probably!" Gracie answered, and El Toro asked again, somewhat hysterically as he ran. _"Probably?"_

"You're going to have to trust me! Besides - the mission is all that matters!" Gracie said, and Bonnie led the way back up the catwalks. "It's working! Now let's get out of here! To the elevator!"

As Old Scratch slipped onto the elevator platform, he said to me, "You have sounded a great horn, Captain my Captain, an' now these walls gonna tumble down!"

"What do you mean 'Horn'? Are you trying to be funny?" El Toro asked. Apparently, El Toro had never heard Friar Cluck preach about Jericho, but before I could say anything, I heard Gracie speak as she jumped off the platform and onto the central core's deck. "Hurry! Let's get out of here before she blows!"

We needed no further encouragement as we raced back to the _Aquila _to escape the explosion.

**XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX**

A few hours later inside the wardroom of the Admiralty building, I, as well as Rena and Gracie, stood in front of the three admirals as we gave our reports on our mission, unsuccessful in getting ourselves killed on our suicide mission.

"Well done, captains - and Miss Conrad! The Clockworks are reeling now - you've lit the beacon that will light our way to victory!" Admiral Doggett said in a pleased tone as Lord Nelson spoke up. "Survived your first suicide mission, eh? I assure you, there is nothing finer. Why, I remember my first suicide mission-"

Gracie interrupted Lord Nelson politely by clearing her throat, and she gestured towards me. "Begging your pardons, sirs, we've intercepted some enemy intelligence that you need to hear."

"Quick, Matt - tell them everything that Bishop told Kane." Rena said, and I nodded as I stepped forward. "Very well then..."

**XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX**

"Incredible!" Admiral Doggett said as I finished my report. "This intelligence you've found is staggering - if this Bishop fiend is right, we're on the very edge of defeat!"

"The Isle of Fetch is already in trouble - the endgame may have begun!" Lord Nelson exclaimed. "So, Rooke means to flank us via MooShu, eh? He's clever, I'll give him that."

"Gentlemen, I'll take the _Victory _and deal with Rooke's little maneuver personally. If you will excuse me..."

"We'll go and help!" Rena spoke up, but Admiral Kearns had other ideas. "Oh no, you don't! You've proven yourself quite handy - I've better use for you. As Nelson hinted, we've lost contact with the Isle of Fetch. Our finest troops are holding the line on Fetch - Kurghas, colonial auxiliaries out of Rajah. The finest troops in the Empire."

I nodded, having met the fierce Tigers of Rajah on one of my earlier voyages aboard the _Providence, _and Admiral Kearns continued. "Last we'd heard from them, they were complaining about their rations. We upgraded their provisions, and haven't had a word from the devils since. If the Kurghas falter, the Armada will win a foothold in Fetch. If that happens, all of Marleybone is doomed."

"We need to find out exactly what's going on. Go there and get this sorted out - Her Majesty's forces are depending upon you!" Admiral Kearns said, and with that, the three of us, as well as Lord Nelson, left the building.

"So you're coming with us, then?" I asked Gracie, and she nodded. "In my briefing, they said that I'd also have to act as a government minder for the pirate captains taking me to the station until they die or receive their commissions."

"Well, we'll be glad to have you aboard the _Santo Oro_." Rena said, glancing meaningfully at me, and I shrugged. There was only so much the _Santo Oro's _carpenter could do by himself without a mate or two, so he'd be grateful for the extra help.

"You guys go on ahead and prepare the ships - I want to visit the men injured during the capture of the fortress." I said as we reached a crossroads, and the two nodded as we went our separate ways: them to the docks, and I to Queen's Hospital.

The eternal night of Marleybone was warm today (tonight?), and I was happy for the excuse to remove my coat and drape it over my forearm as I walked. As I turned around the corner to Queen's hospital, I dropped my coat onto the sidewalk at what I saw.

A young redcoat not a whole lot older than I was with a bloody arm and leg lay moaning for his mother and sweetheart and anyone that could give him comfort as he was carried on a stretcher. I then saw the poor soldier moan quietly to one of the nurses carrying him, who simply nodded as he drew a pistol from his belt. I watched in horror as the barrel was pointed down at the redcoat's head, and then the nurse pulled the trigger. _BAM!_

Turning around to head nowhere, I didn't even bother picking up my coat from the street as I walked away, supporting myself with one forearm on the wall next to me, feeling delirious as the tears began to flow freely down my face. "Oh God... I wish I had not done it..."


	15. Chapter 15 - The Press Gang! (Part 1)

I just wanted to forget everything - about how the others and I helped Catbeard, the shipwrecks in the skyway, and most of all, that poor old soldier. I had no idea where my feet were taking me, but before I knew it, I was sitting on a stool at the bar of the Admiral Benbow tavern.

"One bottle of Yum, please." I said, placing a few coins down onto the counter. The innkeeper gave me a bottle, and she took a good look at me. "Drowning our sorrows now, are we, young man? Well, there are more than a few who could use it, what with the war on and all that."

I nodded glumly as the innkeeper walked away to serve another customer, and seizing the bottle by the neck, I chugged it down in one sitting, and promptly collapsed onto my folded arms at the counter, feeling even worse than before, but at least I had something physically painful to focus on.

Before I could order a second bottle, the doors to the tavern suddenly burst open, and I glanced behind me to see men armed with cudgels: a press gang sent to force men into the service of the Royal Navy.

I hated people like them: always bullying people to do something they didn't want to do. In my mind, the only thing that separated them from common criminals was their uniforms. I then belatedly realized that _they _were going to try and take me and the other male patrons of the tavern. Well, I may be struck down, but I'll be damned if I'm pressed!

Two men approached from behind, apparently assuming I was drunk. They were partially correct, but that didn't stop me from smashing the bottle into the first man's face and then jabbing the broken bottleneck at the second. The first was knocked out cold, while the other had several scratches bleeding on his face, and the alcohol I had consumed only made me angrier.

Two more had noticed me take out their mates, and the one in the lead got his face forcibly smashed into the counter. Grabbing the shirt of the second man, I head-butted him and sent him reeling back to be kicked in the crotch.

As I ducked underneath a cudgel, I noticed that all of the male patrons had been knocked unconscious and were now being dragged out the door, while the females had all run away. Now it was just me against a dozen blokes, and as I snapped my fingers, no blue flame appeared. My powers still hadn't returned?!

One of the press gang took advantage of my momentary shock to hit me on the head from behind, and the last thing I saw before everything went dark was the wooden planks of the floor.


	16. Chapter 16 - The Press Gang! (Part 2)

"Oi, get up, you little shit!" I heard a voice growl as I was kicked awake, and finding that I couldn't move my hands, I sat up to find myself sitting on a cart at the far end of the harbor, away from the _Aquila _and the _Santo Oro_.

I was then literally kicked out of the cart and onto the cobblestone of the pier. I groaned as I stood up, trying in vain to break the bonds that held my wrists. I tried snapping my fingers to create a blue flame with Gunnery, but my powers still hadn't returned.

I felt something prod my back, and I glanced behind me to see a redcoat marine armed with a bayonet behind me. I gritted my teeth as I shuffled forward into a longboat that bobbed slightly with the wind.

I soon found myself crowded with the other pressed men like sardines, and the press gang soon cast off the longboat's lines to row towards the ship-of-the-line just outside of the harbor.

As we left the safety of the docks, the cold winds were choppy as the small flotilla of longboats made their way to the stern of the ship-of-the-line, and as it got close enough to the light of our lanterns, I could see its name: _VICTORY_.

_So I'm being press-ganged on Lord Nelson's orders?! _I thought angrily as I thought of the admiral, and I suddenly felt the urge to kick something, preferably the admiral or one of the press gangers, but I was unable to do so, being packed as tight as I was, and the ladder leading up to the main deck soon came alongside my longboat.

In the dim light of the lanterns, the HMS _Victory_ was a menacing wooden leviathan painted with black-and-yellow stripes in the Nelson Checker, whose sixteen-pounder guns could easily turn the little vessel I was on into matchsticks.

I then was roughly shoved forward by a member of the press-gang to the side of the boat, which would've sent me overboard if another member of the press gang hadn't caught me by my handcuffs. I felt the rough leather of the cuffs fall off my wrists, and I glanced behind me to see the press ganger brandishing his rigging knife at me. I returned the gesture with a harsh glare as I stepped onto the side of the longboat.

Leaping off her bulwarks, I landed onto the ladder, with little winds nipping at my heels and sending shudders up through the bottoms of my trousers.

I climbed easily onto the main deck, and I couldn't help but notice how dizzyingly tall the three masts were at almost one hundred and eighty feet, their rigging a forest made up of acres of canvas and rope stretching for miles. My observations were then rudely cut off by one of the press gangers as he shoved me to an open hatch leading to the deck below, where I was herded along with the others like cattle down three decks to the ship's hold, where her provisions were kept.

I resented being treated like a slave, as if I was just another expendable brute to work the ship and to be despised by all the other sailors aboard. Clenching my teeth in bitterness, I was shoved down the companionway to the hold, and I heard the hatch slam shut behind me, as I was the last to be sent to the hold.

The only light now was from lanterns on the orlop deck above, pouring through grates in the rafters, and ducking to avoid hitting my head, I sat atop a wooden barrel lying on its side. I didn't feel like falling asleep in such absolute darkness, and I then felt pinpricks on my feet as a red-eyed rat the color of the shadows around it crawled across.

My eyes went wide, and I stifled a scream as I kicked it across the dappled light, where I could see the movements of the other pressed men, although now in the darkness, they looked more like shades instead of real people.

They were making noises, although I felt so disconnected, I had to tune in to hear them clearly. I heard their prayers for themselves and their loved ones, as well as their cursing the Fates, but loudest of all were their sobs, their sadness at being torn apart from their families.

I imagined tiny teardrops splashing onto the unfeeling deck of the hold, and I wondered how many little children are waiting for their daddies to come home, only to find out months later that he had died at sea?

The thought of never seeing my crew again made me so angry, I snapped my fingers to try and create a blue flame, but nothing happened. _First, my parents, then my crew, and now my powers… The gods really have abandoned me…_

I felt something wet slide down the sides of my nose, and I belatedly realized that I was crying. The first tear that ran across my lip tasted bitter and salty as it entered my mouth, and I wiped it and the other tears away with the sleeve of my shirt.

I must've been crying like a baby for well over an hour before I heard a loud creak come from behind me, and I turned to see that a boatswain's mate had opened the hatch behind me. "First luff wants you all topside!"

Lethargically getting up from my seat on the barrel, I was in the lead as the sailors herded the pressed men up to the weather decks, where the boatswain, the ship's officer in charge of the crew bawled at us. "Toe the line, you bastards!"

Pressing all our toes against one of the tarry lines keeping the ship's planks together, I looked up to see the master-at-arms, in charge of weapons and discipline, arrive with his mates from the ship's stern, or rear.

They toed the line across the deck from us, along with the other officers, which included the midshipmen, young men no older than I was training to become officers. Between the aft, or towards the stern ends of the two lines was the ship's clerk, along with a small wooden table and chair.

We stood there in an awkward silence for a few minutes, before I heard a mutter pass down the line of pressed men from the able seaman at the aft end. "Looks like Handsome Dan's come topside, boys."

"Pressed men, sir!" The master-at-arm reported as he touched his hat to the first lieutenant, who stepped up to the center of the two lines. The first lieutenant was a short and stocky Bulldog about the same age as Jack, with dark piggy eyes and a rather ironic face, considering his nickname. He said nothing as he took his cocked hat off and tucked it underneath his shoulder, and then he spoke.

"I am Mr. Dan Yale, and I am the first lieutenant of this ship, and as of today, you are all pressed men at the service of the Royal Navy." Lieutenant Yale said as he strode slowly towards us, and I froze like a deer in headlights as he glanced at me with dark, intelligent eyes before he continued speaking. "We are at war with the Clockworks, and there will only be one winner at the end, and that is going to be us. And we will win it by courage and discipline!"

He let that sink in for a moment before walking back to the small table a few yards away and sat down, placing his gold-laced cocked hat on the table while a clerk opened up a book the size of the library's dictionary to write in it. "You will answer my questions now and this will help me decide how best you will serve. I will rate you here and provide watch and station details later to the officer of your division. Do we have any volunteers?"

No one dared to raise his hand, keeping them at their sides clenched in fists, and Mr. James turned his head to the clerk to say one quiet word that somehow we could all hear clearly. "Begin."

As the men stepped forward and back one by one, I began to doze off only to be woken up from my pseudo-sleep as the first lieutenant called out. "You there! Over at the end! What's your name?"

I shuffled forward, and I kept my blue eyes glued to the deck to avoid eye contact, as Lieutenant Yale asked me, and not unkindly: "Your name and profession please?"

"Matthew Exeter, able seaman." I answered, mustering the courage to look the first lieutenant in the eye. The master-at-arms then startled me as he barked sharply, making me almost jump out of my shoes and socks. "Sir!"

"Sir!" I repeated him as I straightened up, hastening to give the first lieutenant a proper naval salute with the tar-stained palm facing away from him. I had gotten so used to being the captain that I had almost forgotten what it was like to be ordered about, and the first lieutenant nodded as he spoke to the clerk hastily scribbling down the details. "Matthew Exeter, rated able seaman, Mr. Bowden's division."

Then Lieutenant Dan beckoned for the boatswain to come over, and after he had whispered in his ear, a piercing whistle came up from over the other side of the ship, and a murmur then went up from among the officers as the boatswain's mate whispered to us from behind. "It looks like the admiral and captain have come aboard, boys."

The admiral's bargemen were the first to come up onto the weather decks. In charge of manning the captain's longboat that took him from ship to shore and back again, they were also his bodyguards during boarding parties, and Lord Nelson stepped easily onto the main deck, followed by his captain, a Thomas Hardy, I believe.

I forgot my previous anger towards Marleybone's greatest naval hero in his presence, and as the officers saluted him, he looked dignified for all of ten seconds before suddenly sprinting towards the line of pressed men. We barely had time to make way for him as Lord Nelson shouted, "Look out, I'm going to be SICK!"

The admiral made an awful retching sound as he leaned over the starboard bulkhead, and everyone present just face-palmed as Lord Nelson wiped the vomit from his mouth. "Uh, sorry about that. I get terribly sky-sick."

Lord Nelson then promptly vomited all over the main deck, and I groaned mentally. _Oh, this is ridiculous! He's supposed to be Marleybone's greatest naval hero, and he's half-blind, one-armed, and he gets SKY-SICK! What kind of naval hero gets SKY-SICK?!_

My disappointment at Marleybone's greatest naval hero was then cut short as I was herded along with the other pressed men to the orlop deck just above the hold of the ship to have our check-ups with the surgeon, a Fox named William Beatty, and then back up to the gun deck just above the orlop deck.

Despite my newfound status as a pressed man, I was still kind of excited by all the activity around me as the ship was readied for the battle with the Armada, and pity the Clockworks who get in my way.


	17. Chapter 17 - The Press Gang! (Part 3)

As I thought about what might await me on this voyage, I was brought back to reality by the muffled thumps of the gun ports being closed and secured, cutting off the weak sunlight coming through them, and the sunlight coming down from the hatchways leading up to the weather decks us dimmed as they were closed as well.

In the darkness, I was unpleasantly reminded of the cramped spaces of the ship's hold as I saw the sailors moving, and I felt much better as the lanterns were lit.

I then saw the young midshipman from before standing at the bottom of the companionway to the weather decks, and I frowned a bit as I got another close look at his face. Maybe it was just the uncertain lantern light, but something felt... off about him, not necessarily in a dangerous way, but like he was hiding something.

The pressed sailors gathered around the capstan on the deck, its bars sticking out like the spokes of a wooden wheel with the rim removed, with tight rope attached to their ends, and I felt myself being pushed into place at a capstan bar next to a redcoat as the midshipman suddenly shouted, "Man the capstan! Silence, fore and aft!"

It had only been yesterday since I was captain of my own ship, and now I'm a victim of the press-gang, sent out to sea to defend Marleybone. While I was grateful for the chance to serve Her Majesty, I wish I could've done it from my own quarterdeck.

"Take the strain, heave round!" The midshipman cried, and I copied the motions of the others as they pushed against the capstan bars, which began to move slowly to the beat of metallic clanks as the anchor slowly rose outside of the ship.

"Now, come on, men - heave away for your lives!" The midshipman yelled, and we threw ourselves at the bar in a furious assault of effort, as if we were fighting against our worst enemies. All the angry and bitter resentment I've ever felt towards anyone fueled my frenzy of effort as I pushed the capstan bar. Flashes of light appeared in my vision, but I ignored them as I pressed on.

We kept up the pressure, desperate to avoid a loss of momentum as the clanks came in a faster pace, and just when I thought I couldn't push anymore, a shout from up the ladder was acknowledged by the midshipman. "Avast heaving!"

Feeling lightheaded from exhaustion, I was breathing hard as I hung from the capstan bar like a sweaty towel on a clothesline, and the midshipman said to us, "Well done, men!"

I then felt the ship move out from under me, and I would've fallen over if it weren't for the capstan bar and my sea legs. The capstan and anchor were quickly secured as a boatswain's mate appeared at the steps leading up to the weather decks. "Hands to supper!"

Following the enlisted men down the companionways to the berth deck, I saw that small tables had been lowered from the bulkheads as messes of eight reached into their chests to pull out their wooden plates and utensils.

I leaned against a wooden deck pillar in the darkness between the two rows of cloths, feeling lonely and hungry. As I crossed my arms in front of my chest and looked down at my shoes, I heard a voice directed towards me. "Bring your arse to anchor, mate, we'll see you right."

The voice belonged to a man in his twenties, and he had short brown hair and brown eyes. He was tall and muscular, and he wore a red handkerchief carelessly knotted over a blue striped shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and brown trousers.

Feeling self-conscious, I slowly sat down at the edge of the cloth next to the man who invited me."So you're newly pressed, are you?"

I nodded, and the man held out his hand towards me as he jerked his other thumb at the others. "I'm Lucas Mills, able seaman, and these be my messmates. It's nice to make your acquaintance."

"... Matthew Exeter, able seaman. It's nice to meet you too." I answered as I shook his hand, and then Mills called to an older man sitting nearest to the mess chest. "Faulkner, lend our guest your traps - we can't have him keeling over on his first day."

I nodded gratefully as Faulkner passed down his eating utensils: wooden cutlery atop a square wooden plate with food. I hadn't realized the full extent of my hunger, and before I knew it, I had finished off my bowl of oatmeal with chunks of meat before the rest had finished, despite their head start.

In the crook of my elbow, I cracked open my hardtack to shake out the maggots as I asked them a question. "So is there anyone I should watch out for?"

Mills shook his head as he seized several of the maggots from his own piece of brick-like bread and casually dropped them on the wooden deck underneath the table. "The captain and the admiral are no friends of the cat. It hasn't seen the light of day for a month – they knows it's us who work the ship for them, so they treats us right."

I then spotted the redheaded midshipman from before slowly walking towards us from the ladder leading down to the orlop deck, and pointing, I elbowed Mills gently to ask, "Who's that?"

"That'd be Harcourt, the squeaker in charge of our division." Mills answered, and I nodded as I said, "Yeah, I remember now. Handsome Dan assigned me to his division when we were on the main deck."

Harcourt stopped as he reached our mess, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw that he was still dressed in the working rig uniform: a black porkpie hat, a dark blue frock coat open over a white waistcoat and trousers, and black shoes. "So is this your new messmate, Mr. Mills?"

"Yes sir, if these blokes here don't have any objections." Mills answered as he nodded, and the other members of the mess shook their heads as they ate, keeping their eyes glued to their food. Harcourt nodded as he asked, "So what's your name, sailor?"

"Exeter. Matthew Exeter." I answered, and then he introduced himself. "Harcourt. Elijah Harcourt."

There was that weird feeling of suspicion again, but I decided to shrug it off as Harcourt turned to leave for the steerage, where the midshipmen ate and slept, and we continued talking over our meal. "So how many years have you been sailing, Exeter?"

"Almost a decade now aboard merchant ships, though I've never been in the service." I lied easily as I dunked my hardtack into my tea to soften it up. Mills nodded as he raised his tankard slightly, and the others followed his example. "Well, a toast to your years before the mast of the Victory!"

The others chorused agreement, and I had to smile as we all clinked our tankards together and drank.

**A/N: Now more characters cross over from my original series, ****_Sailor's Beginning,_**** on FictionPress. Go ahead, review it, and see if I care. :) **


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